MacBook Air Case Review

Apr 27, 2011

As soon as I got my 11” MacBook Air, some months ago now, it was obvious carrying it in any of my existing backpacks or bags would look ridiculous. Rather like my 2 year old walking around in one of my shirts. I was seriously disappointed when I hit up Google to start my search for a case that would meet my requirements. They weren’t very complex: thin and sized for the 11” MBA, modest amount of padding to protect the diminutive baby, a small pocket to hold my essentials such as a 2 factor USB fob, earphones and so forth. Oh, and it had to be something a male would generally be comfortable carrying. Particularly on Etsy I found a few interesting cases but they were way too feminine in design for my taste. Most cases I found were either nothing more than a slipcase (no pocket) or were too bulky (basically small versions of a backpack). Somewhere in my digging around someone praised this Targus case and since my local BestBuy had it in stock I checked it out.

The Targus slip case is made of neoprene and sized for notebooks of up to 12”. In practice the 11” MBA has a nice snug fit along the width of this case. I was originally concerned that the height of the case was a couple inches more than that of the MBA. In practice this is actually a nice little feature as it provides a fairly secure grip (almost like a handle). The pocket is a great size. Mine contains a 2 factor USB device, two USB thumb drives, a small pad of paper, pen, earphones and my Bluetooth earpiece.

I’ve carried the case around a lot over the past few months and it shows no signs of wear. Although not as cool looking as I’d prefer (an identical case made of leather would be so much nicer) the price and functionality are fantastic. I can easily recommend it if your needs are similar to mine.